Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 101: Believe and Burn

’Believe. Believe. Believe.’ The words boomed like a hammer in Leon’s skull, each strike ringing against the sight of Lieutenant Prince throwing himself again and again into the tide of snapping jaws.

A wall of snarling sound surged forward – "rrrraaah... RAAAH!"

Leon stood frozen, waiting for a courage that felt like a distant memory. Thick dust with the acidic ichor tang swirled into miniature tornadoes.

They painted the air in streaks of black and brown, the ground vibrating with the crashes.

"Leon! Don’t just stand like a dummy and watch me die!" Prince’s scream cut through the chaos in a ragged voice, like a dying monarch commanding extra forces.

Use your fists!

The words from the black book resurfaced like a physical jolt and dragged with them other faces: his mother’s blind eyes, Lily’s trusting smile, and his father’s solemn eyes in the faded portrait.

A terrible sensation built in Leon’s chest, as if something was trying to claw its way out from the inside. He brushed his palm down the front of his black suit, and it hummed beneath his touch.

’Breathe.’ He forced the air in a shuddering pull that felt like inhaling drugs through his lungs. His bones gave a series of sharp, internal cracks as the air coursed through him.

His whole body shuddered like breaking chains as he moved one leg. Then another.

A new gust of wind blasted against him, rippling his messy hair back as two of the wolf-beasts and three bat-things whose throats pulsed turned their heads in unison.

In a blink, their attention shifted from the lieutenant to the boy now stepping forward.

The world narrowed as Leon closed the distance. There, the faces of the wolves shimmered, their snarling maws twisting. For a fleeting second, the faces of the creatures turned into the grins of Tiger and Jade.

Leon momentarily fixed his gaze on the wolves, neglecting the bats.

One of the bats tilted its head, its mouth opening wide. A piercing WHRRRRRRRR tore through the air, compressing the space before it.

DOOOOM!

The sonic wave hit Leon like a physical blow, its impact driving through him, while hot pain exploded in his ears.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Warm blood traced down the side of his neck in beads. A terrifying sensation of boiling pressure in his veins rose, as if all his blood wanted to erupt through his skin.

A high, keening whine took charge as every sound around him muffled.

’No matter what, I won’t give up. Either you die... or we die together.’ A cold stone of thought dropped into Leon’s skull.

Bone-cracking sounds echoed around his right fist as it clenched, knuckles tightening. A faint, grim smile touched his lips as he moved forward.

Once. Twice. Then, on the third movement, he stood, one boot planted on the caved-in chest of a wolf, its ribs like a shattered basket.

The second wolf lunged, its claws aiming toward the boy’s skull. Leon pivoted and drove his fist in a short, vicious arc into the beast’s lower jaw.

CRUNCH.

The wolf’s snout folded inward. The impact lifted it off its front paws and hurled it sideways. It crashed into a jagged pile of rocks five meters away with a wet thud. Its body twitched once before lying still.

"SKRRRRRAKK – SKRRR – KRRK!"

"BOORRM – CRRRAKK!"

The bats shrieked, their throat sacs glowing with a sickly green light. Leon turned his head slowly, his blood-streaked face settling into a focused expression.

He saw the sonic distortion building in the air but grinned and lunged. He skittered left, avoiding a gout of concussive force, and his fist hammered into the nearest bat’s wing joint.

Pam!

The limb buckled. He ducked under a swipe of a clawed wing, came up inside its guard, and drove an uppercut into the creature’s pulsating throat-sac.

Smash!

The sac ruptured inward with a sound like a bursting fruit, and then dropped silent.

Each punch Leon threw tore through chitin and membrane, reducing the shrieking things to twitching chunks of flesh.

He paused, chest heaving, the coppery taste of his own blood thick in his mouth. He tilted his head and locked his gaze on the last bat.

The sonic blast thundered over Leon like a collapsing mountain face. But his senses were sharpened under the rising blood pressure and the frantic drums of his heart.

He stepped into it. His skin prickled, rippling like rubber, but he felt no pain when the force washed over him.

A guttural HHHHRRROOOOMM! vibrated from the bat’s chest as Leon’s reddened, ichor-smeared knuckles connected with it.

PISSSSSSH!

The impact sent the creature flying and vanishing into the bruised sky with the speed of a shot arrow.

A wave of silence fell over the ground. Then, as if a switch had been pressed, the entire swarm’s focus ripped away from Lieutenant Prince.

Dozens of heads, hundreds of glowing eyes, all swiveled as one. Snarls, clicks, and hisses refocused, now directed at the small, panting figure standing amidst their dead.

Leon’s grim smile faltered when he caught a glimpse of Prince’s face through the speeding chaos of bodies turning his way.

KRRRRAAAAKKKK – BOOM!

A charging beetle-like creature exploded inward and crashed into two others when Leon’s fist landed on the head of the creature.

Countless creatures flared after being hit by Leon’s fist, rising into the air like torn feathers. The ground shook with the impacts of falling bodies, which rained down around him.

After several moments that felt like an endless hour, Leon stood over two slightly twitching forms – a wolf under his left boot, and a bat under his right.

He tried to raise an arm and wipe the stinging ichor from his eyes, but his muscles burned. He looked down at the crushed wolf’s head beneath his heel.

"Is this how murderers feel?" he whispered to the screaming wind, and then a short, breathless laugh escaped him.

He shook his head and dashed forward again. The same sensation he’d felt at the Granum Tower and at the field coiled in his gut.

He moved with a grinding rhythm: step. Breathe. Strike.